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James introduces me to Michael, one of his most trusted guards, and James and I part ways. Him to his royal duties, and me to the village where I hope my future lies waiting for me.
* * *
The village is bustling.People are trading their homemade wares and there’s an abundance of sounds and smells that take me right back to growing up. I laugh when Michael steps in a cow patty and curses.
I ask some of the villagers that we pass if they know where an Isabelle lives but they all shake their head and hurry away. An hour passes and I still haven’t found anyone who knows her. My frustration is starting to build, as is my panic. I’m beginning to fear that she doesn’t really exist and the woman in the kitchen was just messing with me.
I’m standing off to the side of the market, trying to decide who else to ask when I feel a tap on my shoulder. Turning around I see a beautiful dark-haired woman dressed in an assortment of colorful clothes. I’m pretty sure she’s a gypsy and I quickly look around to see if anyone has noticed her. Gypsies were considered pariahs in medieval England and they usually kept to themselves for fear of accusations of witchcraft and torture. No one seems to see this gypsy though while I move us off to the side and out of view.
“Can I help you,” I ask politely. She searches my eyes, looking for something. Satisfied, she nods.
“Did I hear correctly that you were looking for a woman named Isabelle?” she says in a heavily accented voice.
“Yes, do you know her?” I ask desperately, thrilled to find someone who at least seems to recognize the name.
She suddenly curtsies down low. “I am she. And I would be honored to be of service to a being such as you.”
I’ve found her.
Chapter 10
I’m too shocked to talk as she hurries me away from the market, towards the outskirts of the village. We soon happen upon a dilapidated looking hut right at the edge of the forest.
“Stay here,” she orders the guard who looks a little entranced as he nods his head in obedience. It’s a strange reaction since he should have been up in arms with my association with a gypsy. He hasn’t uttered a word however since we’ve seen her.
We walk through the doors and my eyes widen. I was expecting the inside to match the run down outside, but instead it’s as if we’ve stepped inside a palace in the Middle East. While the furnishings are lavish with brightly colored silks and gold accessories covering every surface, what is really shocking is how far the inside of the house seems to extend. It’s more the inside of a large mansion than the 100 square foot hut it looked like from the outside.
“What kind of magic is this?” I ask as I inhale the delectable incense that is threaded throughout the air.
“Just a bit of gypsy magic,” she says with a laugh. “The same magic that allows me to move around the village without people noticing me. Your guard won’t remember this encounter at all.”
I should have been surprised at the easy talk of magic. But I was some kind of time traveler. If I could believe that was real, I could believe magic was real. And in this case, I was almost desperate for it to be real.
“What did you mean earlier, when you said a “being such as you,”” I ask, gripping the sides of my chair as I wait for her answer.
She gives me an understanding smile. “What do you know about time travel?” she asks me.
Her question catches me off guard. “Nothing except that it’s possible,” I answer.
She settles back into her seat. “One of the very first-time travel stories ever recorded appears in the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. I believe it’s from around 400 B.C. Have you heard of it?”
I shake my head. I didn’t know very much about Hindu mythology or really any mythology for that matter
“The story involves a King Kakudmi and his search for a perfect partner for his daughter, Revati. Revati was King Kakudmi’s only daughter and he believed that she was so beautiful and well-educated that no man would be good enough to marry her. So Kakudmi took Revati with him to Brahmaloka in order to have an audience with the god Brahma and ask for his advice about finding a suitable husband for her. Brahma was enjoying a musical performance when they arrived, so they waited for it to finish before meeting with him. Much to their surprise, Brahma told them that time runs differently on different planets. During the time they awaited, so much time had passed on Earth that all the men who had been previously considered a possible suitor for Revati had died. Brahma comforted them by telling them that there was a worthy husband waiting on earth for Revati. And so, they went back, and Revati met her true love. The only man who was actually worthy for her.”
“I don’t understand. What does that have to do with me?” I ask as I ponder the potential meanings of the story.
“What the King didn’t understand was that Revati was special. So special that there truly were only certain souls that could be with her. Although the legend says that they visited Brahma, in truth Revati was transported for centuries until she found the one who was meant for her.”
“She was a time traveler?” I ask in awe.
“She was. Just like you,” Isabelle says gently.
“Did Revati stop moving through time, or did she at least get control of how she moved through time? Is it possible?” I ask desperately.
“You are a unique case, Juliet Caris. Just as your mother was.”
“My mother?”
